


bed-bound and suffering

by v3ilfire



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, oh look it's a literal block of cheese
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 15:29:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8495275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/v3ilfire/pseuds/v3ilfire
Summary: By the time dinner was finished Florence was both ravenous and a little tipsy. Kaidan had put all that effort into a three-course meal and between the alcohol and the way he smiled at her any time she so much as looked at him, she couldn’t muster up more than three half-baked half-thoughts to thank him. “So I’m assuming that I should cook more often,” he said, still working on his pasta like a normal human being and not some voracious requisition form machine. “You let me know if being Major doesn’t work out. The mess could use an upgrade.” “I’m surprised you didn’t ask for a personal assistant before a private chef.” “If you’re so eager to do paperwork, Kaidan, I’ve got an hour and a half’s worth over on the couch.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> oh look at that, it's cheesy

Sunk in the middle of overdue paperwork of every variety, Florence let the doorbell ring several times before she finally pried herself and one of the dozen datapads scattered around her off the couch and to the monitor by the entry.   
“This is Shepard,” she said without looking up from her work.    
“Hey!” Florence’s head jolted up towards the screen. She’d expected her guest to be any number of people from Khalisah al-Jilani to Dalatrass Linron, or even a disgruntled C-Sec officer metaphorically hauling Grunt by the collar again. Anyone who,  _ unlike _ Kaidan Alenko, had not already agreed to come by at a specific time.   
“You’re early.” Kaidan couldn’t see her cross her arms on his end, but judging by that cheesy grin he was sporting he didn’t care anyway..    
“I got excited,” he answered, more of an excuse than a confession. She’d been excited too, but it would be hard to enjoy their planned attempt at normalcy with a month’s worth of work nipping at her ankles.   
“An  _ hour and a half _ early. I still have work to do.”   
“At least let me drop off the food,” he said, raising his arms to show off what she assumed was half the stock of amino groceries on the entire Citadel.    
“Are you planning on running biotic drills before we eat, Major?”    
“Just let me up.” 

A sigh masked the click of the button that unlocked the elevator doors downstairs. By the time they opened on the sixth floor, Florence was already busy with her eighth and final requisition form of the day. Apparently asking Cortez  _ very _ nicely for supplies was no longer an option. 

“Hey,” Kaidan said, sure to make a stop at the couch on his way to the kitchen just to kiss Florence on the cheek. “You know I don’t intend to leave, right?” Florence shook her head. She’d have swatted at him but he was already halfway across the room.   
“As long as you don’t talk to me for an hour and a half.” In truth, she only needed an hour and fifteen minutes; the other fifteen had been set aside to change out of her N7 sweats and into the clothes Miranda had helped her pick out.    
“Or you could come in here and forget about work for an  _ extra _ hour and a half.”    
“No can do, Major. I’ve already received three passive-aggressive e-mails about the importance of the bureaucratic process. These get done  _ tonight _ .” Florence assumed that the frustrated sigh and following silence meant that he’d given up for the moment and left her to her duties, but once her apartment started smelling of bacon she realized she should have probably known better. She refused to cave at first, but soon her hunger got the best of her and she resolved to be in and out of the kitchen in less than three minutes.

Unfortunately for her plan, as soon as she got within an arm’s length of the counter she had to lunge forward to stop a bottle of beer from sliding right past its edge and shattering across the tile floor. “Oh, no,” she warned, “I’m still in the middle of -”   
“Well, then it’s a shame that I already opened it,” Kaidan answered. Florence was halfway to protesting when he hit her with a cheeky grin and nodded towards a stool. She didn’t know if she was more upset that this was his plan all along or that she didn’t see through it the moment he showed up at her door… or that she really didn’t even put a minimal effort into fighting him on it.    
“It’s moments like these that I’m reminded why I never get anything done anymore,” she muttered as she took a reluctant seat, but she knew she didn't sound too upset about that. “So what are we eating?”   
“I’m uh… I’m improvising,” he admitted. “It’ll be good. Trust me.”    
“Uh-huh. Just don’t poison us. It’d look pretty bad if  _ both _ human Spectres are bedridden at the same time.”   
“No, no I guess not. Wouldn’t be so bad for us though, would it?”    
“I think we can find better quality time than bed-bound and suffering.”    


By the time dinner was finished Florence was both ravenous and a little tipsy. Kaidan had put all that effort into a three-course meal and between the alcohol and the way he smiled at her any time she so much as looked at him, she couldn’t muster up more than three half-baked half-thoughts to thank him.    
“So I’m assuming that I should cook more often,” he said, still working on his pasta like a normal human being and not some voracious requisition form machine.   
“You let me know if being Major doesn’t work out. The mess could use an upgrade.”   
“I’m surprised you didn’t ask for a personal assistant before a private chef.”    
“If you’re so eager to do paperwork, Kaidan, I’ve got an hour and a half’s worth over on the couch.” That shut him up just long enough for her to stand and take her dishes to the sink. Being on her feet  _ also _ let her know that three beers made her more than just a  _ little _ tipsy, but no one else needed to know that. 

She was found out anyway. Not for any fault of hers other than feeling particularly affectionate - it wasn’t every day that Florence Shepard broke her polished, measured movements to hug someone from behind without warning.    
“I still can’t believe you’re such a lightweight.”    
“Don’t ruin the moment.” He laughed, but stopped talking. Florence took the opportunity to lay her head against his back and just enjoy the world growing still and warm without thinking about having to let go. She’d forgotten what it was like for her brain to be quiet; sometimes she woke in the middle of the night with her mind already in six different places and her chest tight, but in that moment everything was just… still. She was content. Happy, even. She’d stay there forever if she could, or at least until she sobered up and remembered the length of her to-do list. 

Without warning, Kaidan loosened her grip around his waist, but managed to turn around and grab hold of her before she could complain.   
“Now aren’t you glad you played hooky?” Florence rolled her eyes up at him but he wasn’t  _ wrong _ , so she couldn’t say anything to the contrary. She was drunk enough to do away with bureaucratic process-related guilt, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try and hold it over him.    
“You’re taking the fall for that  _ with _ me, Alenko.”   
“I would like nothing more.” There had been a response at the tip of her tongue, but his kiss caught them first and right then any coherent thought promptly vacated the premises.

 

* * *

 

Florence woke in the comfort of blankets and body heat, not so much hung over as sluggish and a little hungry. Kaidan stirred while she tried to get her bearings, his hand on her back shifting just enough to remind her that it was halfway up her shirt. They had been so full of intent the night prior that they didn’t even notice the combined efforts of exhaustion and alcohol sneak up and drag them to sleep within minutes of making it to bed. They finally answered the age-old question that no one ever asked: how tired do two fully-grown adults have to be to make out for ten minutes and then fall fast asleep? 

Determined to wake up and finish her paperwork, Florence reached for the bedside light. The moment she turned it on she turned it right back off again, because it took one look at Kaidan’s face to realize that while she’d gotten off without a hangover, he’d woken up with a migraine.  
“Hey,” she whispered, and he did his best to smile. It came off as a grimace, but she got the gist. “What do you need?”    
“Good morning to you too,” was his hoarse response. “I’m fine.”   
“Kaidan.”   
“It’ll go away in a few hours, Flo. Don’t worry about it.” It took everything in Florence not to scold him on the spot, so instead she rolled her eyes at him while his were still closed. “You don’t have to do this,” he said as soon as she started stacking pillows at the head of the bed even though he knew there was no stopping her.    
“If you want me to go, just say so.” Normally, Kaidan would continue to protest, but the concept of waiting out his migraine with his head on Florence’s chest while she administered a temple massage that had been perfected over the course of their relationship was a bit too good to pass up.    
“I uh… no. But I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this for the rest of our lives.” 

As a general rule, Florence tried not to  _ talk _ to Kaidan during these episodes. He always made light of how bad his headaches were, but judging by how pale he always looked and the way Chakwas spoke of them, minimizing noise was the least she could do… but there was something about the way he said  _ our lives _ that just wouldn’t let her be. She’d let him settle in and let her get to her work, but after that? She made it one whole minute.  
“Our lives, huh?” He tried to smile again, but the attempt only lasted a few seconds.   
“So you  _ did _ hear that.”   
“Planning ahead?” Her mouth was so dry that even two words at a time took effort. That had to be a new low, even for her.    
“Florence… I love you. If we make it through this…  _ when _ we make it through this, I’m not letting you go again. I just --”    
“I  _ want _ to do this,” she interrupted. An answer to a question long since left behind in the ghost of conversations past. She knew where he was going but hearing the actual question would crush her, so she just  _ hoped _ he knew what she meant with her delayed response. She  _ wanted _ to stay with him through his headaches, she  _ wanted _ to make it through the war, she  _ wanted _ to share her life, and to be distracted from work, and to distract him from dinner, and to fall asleep early, and to be happy and alive and maybe sometimes drunk… 

She wanted it all, but as always, couldn’t find the words. 

“My mother’s been dying to cook for you,” Kaidan said after far too long a silence. “She says you look too skinny in the news vids.” Florence had to catch the breath snatched from her lungs before responding.   
“You tell her that if she’s as good a cook as you are, you’ll have to roll me out of Vancouver.”   
“Sounds like a plan," she said, knowing full well there was nowhere she'd rather be at that moment than bed-bound and suffering. 


End file.
